Mature Media/fish

[SensesFail]

Hi

Iv been very lucky and found someone near by who is kind enough to donate some mature media. Now I understand you can do the fish less cycling method once the media is added to the tank or do a fish in cycle.

In the long run I intend to keep 4 discus fish with a few tetras and maybe a few cat fish. If I get the media and start off with a few rummy nose tetras and cat fishes its my understanding that the filter will accommodate what you have in the tank while it's cycling and establishing itself from the new media and processing the waste from the fish. Iv also read you should try and add the discus together as they become territorial and introducing together will combat problems.

So if I add the media put a few fish in then sometime later add 4 big discus won't this overload the filter as a should be building up gradually? Which makes me think the fish less cycle may benefit as it will be geared up for 5ppm and the amount of fish the tank can suitably hold won't produce that much?

If you do the fish less cycle do you gradually bulked the doses of ammonia up or simply dose to 5ppm straight away? Like wise with adding fish how many would you add at once and adding more can only be done after a week or so of no ammonia or nitrite spikes?

Hope I have not confused things. We need more donors on the list so dig deep ppls and thumbs up to everyone that donates!

Cheers

SF

 

[walkers101]

before you start what tank size is this and really you will need to up the discus to a group of 6

 

[Skins]

Hello SF,
I would be inclined to see how the media you have been given copes with some H/H ammonia before adding fish. I would dose 5ppm then check parameters on a 12hr schedule for 2/3 days and see how it copes.

Sorry SF i may of mis-read your post.

 

[anon02]

Plus 1 for post 3

 

[SensesFail]

before you start what tank size is this and really you will need to up the discus to a group of 6

It's 190 litres. I understand discus need 50litres min each but I created a post in the cichlid section and many were saying I'll just get away with 4 as long as I keep the water pristine? Just bought this tank so my next tank will be whenever I eventually move house into a bigger place. Would you say 6 is a minimum obviously needing a much much bigger tank.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Go with fishless cycling if you can stand to wait a bit for your fish. If it goes wrong then at least no fish will be harmed.
It is a horrible feeling of watching you fish that you have bought to look after, & see florish, dying one by one. I speak from experience.
I am currently at stage 2 of a fishless cycle & cant wait to put fish in but I know that patience is needed.

 

[waterdrop]

I'm not a discus guy but I did bop around and look at a few discus links and I found at least one fellow who did a writeup claiming that specific hard/soft/pH was -not- an essential factor for these fish but that they are just in need of the same basics we normally teach, ie. that pH needs to be stable, as in not moving faster than a half point in a 24 hour period (which can mean that care must be exercised with one's water change process and that perhaps one should perform practice runs with testing.) This was just one writeup among others that were still about the more traditional ideas of having water that is more "planned" (ie. RO'd and then mineralized back up to a given value) for discus. I don't know whether any of our older, experienced members on TFF have ever been discus keepers.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[JoshuaA]

before you start what tank size is this and really you will need to up the discus to a group of 6

It's 190 litres. I understand discus need 50litres min each but I created a post in the cichlid section and many were saying I'll just get away with 4 as long as I keep the water pristine? Just bought this tank so my next tank will be whenever I eventually move house into a bigger place. Would you say 6 is a minimum obviously needing a much much bigger tank.

Actually I think you're looking at maybe 180Litre ish minimum for a Discus and then 50Litres for per fish after that. As far as I remember from when I read up on them. Definitely wouldn't keep them in a 50 litre tank.

Of course it looks like you know that already, however since it is the beginners section I think it would be best to alert anyone who may interpret that falsely.

Personally, I think cycling your tank with mature media might be a good idea although if you are wanting a discucs tank you will be looking for planting it quite a bit too. So you may find it also just as good and effective placing the mature media in a good position where it will get maximum flow (and surface area, if floss feather it out, if its sponge i'd recommend slicing it thinly and spreading it across the filter). Then adding your rummy nose tetra/cat fish and allowing the filter to build up from there whilst closely monitoring. Of course as well as planting what you want.

I think cycling fishlessly with mature media would be wasted time for you, as you can't rush into putting discus into your tank and the majority of your effort will be wasted when you cycling for the potential of a full load of fish but only add around 10%.